DATA MINING
Wallspace
July 6 - August 5, 2006
Conrad Bakker
Jay Chung
Dora Garcia
Chris Moukarbel
Karen Reimer
Gerhard Richter
[The voice of] Robert Smithson
Donelle Woolford
CHRIS MOUKARBEL is interested in how culture is created, expanded and shared, and who if anyone can claim ownership. Whether installing stuffed-animal memorials on city streets or inventing his own niche market Internet pornography (select cuts of meat having sex with each other), Moukarbel is a willing participant in his chosen cultural idioms rather than a detached observer.
A new work, World Trade Center 2006 is a bootleg
of Oliver Stone's up-coming film on the same subject. The
video was composed from a copy of the script and was shot
entirely in the artistĦs studio with handmade sets, borrowed
equipment and student actors. The video was first released
on www.pointsofdeparture.net,
deliberately pre-empting the official release of Stone's film,
slated for August 2006. The broad distribution and democratic
access of the videoĦs Internet premier is an explicit challenge
to Stone's and Hollywood's assumed authority (and creative
ownership) of the events of September 11th, 2001, events that
all of us saw and felt.
The video has since been removed from circulation due to a restraining order issued by The Federal Court of the District of Columbia at the request of Paramount Pictures. Moukarbel's contribution to Data Mining will be a deliberate (and wholly legal) response to this legal action.
Links
www.pointsofdeparture.net
jameswagner.com
www.filmmakermagazine.com
